This invention relates to a method and apparatus for semi-automatic spelling correction. More particularly, the invention provides a spelling correction system which compares linguistic expressions and determines whether one expression is a correct substitute for another. The invention has application in the field of text processing.
In general, text processing systems facilitate the production of printed documents. Early text processing systems primarily provided a text justification function. Subsequent systems included spelling verification procedures to flag incorrectly spelled words. More recently, these systems have incorporated spelling alternative identification procedures for displaying correctly spelled words determined algorithmically to be similar to each incorrectly spelled word.
An exemplary spelling alternative identification system is disclosed in co-pending and commonly assigned U.S. application Ser. No. 467,834 issued as U.S. Pat. No. 4,580,241 for "Method and Apparatus for Automated Spelling Correction." That system converts each incorrectly spelled word to a suspect skeletal expression and compares that expression with database skeletal expressions representing correctly spelled words. In the event the suspect skeletal expression or one of its modified forms match one or more database skeletal expressions, a set of associated correctly spelled words can be presented to the user to permit selection of a replacement expression.
A problem presented by these prior art systems is that they can provide too many candidate expressions. The task of examining these expressions and choosing between them can often be a time consuming interruption for the system user.
Further, due to errors inherent in an algorithmic candidate expression selection process, the prior art systems often mistakenly present candidate expressions which greatly differ from the suspect expression.
An object of this invention, accordingly, is to provide an improved spelling correction system for automated text processing.
More particularly, an object of the invention is to provide a spelling correction system which requires little or no user intervention in performing the correction function.
A further object of this invention is to provide an improved spelling correction system which interfaces the prior art alternative identification systems and reduces the number of suggested expressions provided by those systems.
Still further, an object of this invention is to provide a spelling verification system capable of identifying a correctly spelled expression of similarity to an incorrectly spelled expression and providing a measure of the degree of similarity.
Other objects of the invention are provided in the following description.